Friday nights in college typically feature a showering of fun social media announcements, including campus events, sports games and toga parties.
However, after this past Friday night, social media in higher education glowed blue, white and red.
Colleges across the world are using social media to mark their empathy and support of France after the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday, November 13, 2015.
Some colleges, like the Cork Institute of Technology, used Twitter to post a video of its one minute moment of silence to commemorate the victims of the attack, whereas the football quarterback at Ohio State University posted on Twitter a picture of the “Pray for Paris” symbol to demonstrate his support.
Media outlets, including Total Sorority Move, picked up a Facebook status written by University of Cape Town student Isobel Bowdery, who pretended to be dead during the Bataclan Theater shootings, and Business Insider published a peaceful protest video created by Etudiants Musulmans de France, the Muslim Students of France.
However, while most colleges used social media to express condolences to France and the victims of the attacks, some social media users are protesting against using social media to show support.
Charlotte Farhan, editor of the online magazine, Art Saves Lives International, announced that she will not change her Facebook profile pictureto feature the French flag.
In a status on her Facebook account, Farhan said that putting the French flag on her profile picture is not fair to other countries affected by terror attacks.
She said if she changed her picture to one of a country affected by terror, she would have to change it several times a day.
“‘The reason for this is that if I did this for only Paris this would be wrong,” Farhan said in her post. “If I did this for every attack on the world I would have to change my profile every day several times a day. My heart is with the world, no borders, no hierarchy. I hold every human’s life with value who is attacked by extremist beliefs whether they are based on religion, prejudice or profit!”
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